“Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)” is quite the creation. There’s a little bit of rock, R&B, bubblegum, and baroque pop in its DNA. With that kind of coverage, it’s no wonder it was a huge hit when it was released in 1970.
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In fact, the song was so airtight that it was decided a group should be created around it. Here is the story of that group (Edison Lighthouse) and their single indelible hit.
Wanted: One Pop Group to Record a Hit Single
The rock music explosion of the ‘60s made it so that music groups became all the rage, taking the primacy away from the solo artists who had dominated in the era before that. As such, it became harder for solo artists, even talented ones, to get a footing.
Such was the case of the British singer Tony Burrows. Burrows is a somewhat unknown name to many music fans, but chances are if you’re a fan of oldies radio, you’ve heard his voice. That’s because he sang on several different hit singles in the early ‘70s.
In 1974, Burrows sang lead on “Beach Baby” by The First Class. But his prime era for dominating the charts was 1970. In that year alone, he took center stage on “United We Stand” by the Brotherhood of Man and “My Baby Loves Lovin’” by White Plains.
His biggest splash came with “Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes),” which topped the UK charts and went all the way to No. 5 in the U.S. If Burrows had his way, however, it would have been a big solo smash for him. When he heard the song, which had first been recorded by an artist named Jefferson years before, he hoped to put it out under his own name.
But this was an era when producers and songwriters had a lot of pull when it came to material. Tony Macaulay, who was sort of a pop Svengali of that era, co-wrote the song with Barry Mason and also produced the track. And he insisted a group come together to record it.
As such, a band called Greenfield Hammer was corralled, and they backed Burrows under the new name Edison Lighthouse. Interestingly enough, Edison Lighthouse remained a working concern (and they’re still playing to this day), even though “Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)” was their lone big hit and Burrows was out of the band after their second single flopped.
What is “Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)” About?
“Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)” is a tribute to a free-spirited, charismatic girl who clearly has the narrator in thrall. Even what others might perceive as flaws (She ain’t got no money / Her clothes are kinda funny) can’t dissuade him in the least, because he alone understands her power: Oh, but love grows where my Rosemary goes / And nobody knows but me.
Some of the descriptions are a bit odd. For example, how does one talk kinda lazy? Rosemary turns out to be downright enigmatic: And her life’s a mystery. But the lyrics, when thrown all together, make for an irresistibly catchy concoction Burrows sells to the hilt.
One wonders if we’d be talking about Tony Burrows as a pop great right now if he’d been allowed to record some of these songs as a solo act. But he and Edison Lighthouse nonetheless left a lasting impression with “Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes),” a single built to please any genre.
Photo by Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
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